sisu

Soylent Green revisited

"The Tribal Filter on Green News," Insight July 23, 1990.

It's been nearly twenty years we've been calling out the warmenists and their media allies, wondering when, already, the truth would finally out. Now it finally has, as Drudge headlines "Climategate: 'Greatest scandal in modern science'" and mainstream outlets can no longer deny there's something rotten in the state of warmening "science." Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhoffe says the leaked correspondence suggests researchers "cooked the science to make this thing look as if the science was settled, when all the time of course we knew it was not," and now "Congress May Probe Leaked Global Warming E-Mails." In celebration of this day of cleaning out the Augean Stables, herewith we offer republication of one of our earliest blogposts on the subject, "Soylent Green." Note Palinophobe Andrea Mitchell's unabashed confession back then: "Clearly the networks have made the decision now, where you'd have to call it advocacy." Enjoy:

January 3, 2004. Blogging is nothing new.  Before the glory of the internet, we were madly clipping and underlining and annotating the margins of tree-based publications.  Take this snail blog post, "The Tribal Filter on Green News," by Woody West, having "The Last Word" in the July 23, 1990 issue of Insight:

Only lately have the pooh-bahs of the national press felt secure enough to admit publicly that they filter the news through their personal-tribal creed. As a result, of course, they often report as fact that which is both unsettled and disputed.

. . . At a conference on the environment in Washington earlier this year, reported by The Wall Street Journal's David Brooks, Charles Alexander harrumphed:

"As the science editor at Time I would freely admit that on this issue we have crossed the boundary from news reporting to advocacy."  There was applause from the pressies in conclave assembled, after which Andrea Mitchell, an NBC correspondent, said that "clearly the networks have made the decision now, where you'd have to call it advocacy."

It gets even better:

An environmental reporter at The Boston Globe, Dianne Dumanoski, is quoted as saying, "There is no such thing as objective reporting . . . I've become even more crafty about finding the voices to say the things I think are true.  That's my subversive mission."   Then spake Barbara Pyle, environmental editor of Cable News Network, which shows distressing signs of aping the older networks in cooking the news:  "I do have an axe to grind.  I want to be the little subversive person in television."

Pardon our French, but, plus ça change . . .Oh, and Andrea, there's a message for you from someone called Alan . . . and David Brooks, You're the man!  Clearly.

[Thanks to susis for title]

Give to strategic small-government candidates, not parties

There's something happening here. The anti-establishment protest song has been turned on its head as Tea Partiers find their voice: "People speaking their minds/Getting so much resistance from behind/What a field-day for the heat/A thousand people in the street/Singing songs and carrying signs …" (Cover image of October 2008 "quickie paperback satire" Terminatrix,  co-authored by top Harper-Collins Editor Adam Bellow (Saul's boy), who most recently worked on Sarah Palin's forthcoming blockbuster autobiography Going Rogue)

"It's quite a revelation. I'd been slowing down party contributions of late. Now I see THE WAY!" we twittered blogfriend Barry Campbell of enrevanche ecstatically this morning in response to his response to an earlier tweet of ours:

We: Give to strategic small-government candidates, not parties!

Barry: Yes. And I agree so fervently that I don't mind the "shouting."

It was a eureka moment as we saw the social-networking sausage taking shape before our eyes. Delicious! It started with Sarah Palin's endorsement last week of Doug Hoffman, the independent conservative candidate challenging ACORN-supporting Republican-Party-sanctioned RINO Dede Scozzafava in the upstate NY District 23 congressional special election. Dismissed by Newt Gingrich and the Republican Party establishment, Hoffman has become a beacon of hope for the Army of Davids Tea Partiers, who are getting glimpses of a way out of the desert as he surges ahead in the latest poll. And, of course, Palin's every strategic move is of intense interest — to both diehard fans like us and those who can't stand her — in the blogosphere, the twittersphere, Facebook and on cable TV. The networks and airwaves were abuzz. Based upon Palin's support we sent a little money Hoffman's way, just as we had sent a check to Joe "You lie!" Wilson earlier based upon his speaking truth to power during President Obama's recent address to a joint session of Congress. Today it was dollars for someone else we'd never heard of, conservative VA AG candidate Ken Cuccinelli, based upon a Twitter tip from Erick Erickson of Red State, who looks to a higher authority for his response to "the new counter spin" that would have us once again hold our noses as so many small-government citizens did with John McCain:

To quote Christ, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26 NIV)

Well. Gotta be off to add a little something to the coffers of "Upstart candidate Marco Rubio," who's "cut in half [Obama-hugger] Governor Charlie Crist's lead in the race to win the Republican nomination for a Florida U.S. Senate seat in 2010" thanks to "popular outrage at his support for the $787 billion federal stimulus package." We encourage our readers to lend support to strategically-targeted, small-government candidates wherever they may find them. And while we're in the mood, we especially urge you to support our dear blogfriend, satirical genius and candidate for Leigh County [PA] Executive, Scott "Live the Freedom" Ott of Scrappleface and the Washington Examiner. Click here to give early and often.

Update: Dan Riehl links:

Just as one should always follow the money, the politicians will follow the money, too. Use it to force the GOP to adopt the policies we want, not simply for spite against the GOP.

As we wrote in the comments, "Absolutely. Not an ounce of spite. Just a way out of the desert."

"Twitter, Gawd love it, is blogging for people with ADHD"

Tiny and late bloomer Sedum 'Autumn Joy' trace a tapestry of delicious pinks and grays in the autumn light.

"Put down the Twitter machine. Your fans and admirers miss you," writes a gently scolding Gayle Miller in the comments of our previous post of over a week ago [!], the one that asked the question "Where have all the blogposts gone?" Still working on that. Meanwhile, a sweet and savory stew of wise and witty tidbits from the comments larder to satisfy our readers' appetite for tasty wordplay that sticks to the ribs. Here's wordsmith extraordinaire Elisson of Blog d'Elisson:

Twitter, Gawd love it, is blogging for people with ADHD. But the Twitter 140 word limit, while forcing posters to carve away unessential verbiage, also forces the elimination of so much evocative language. It is like an Instamatic compar ed to a 4 x 5 Crown Graphic …

Brevity may be the soul of wit … but sometimes I like my with with a little meat on its bones. To use a feminine metaphor, give me Sophia Loren over Calista Flockhart any old day.

Autumn's light and shade are harder edged than summer's, what with the sun's beams reaching the northern hemisphere at a lowering angle of declination.

Hubba, hubba, Elisson. Commenter and real-life buddy C Ward concurs and adds some delicious and nutritious morsels to the pot:

I haven't quite glommed onto twittering yet, and I am not sure that I will. I agree with Elisson — there is something intellectually delicious about starting out in one place, and coming out of a post with an entirely new perspective, something less likely to happen in 140 characters.

Certainly there is a discipline of thought required to express oneself in only 140 characters. But to journey though the wonders of the English language, with real grammar? Ah, that is a true art. Combining the thought discipline (but not necessarily the 140 character limitation!) with the art? Priceless. And what I like about your blog.

"Perhaps Tiny isn't talking because she's contemplating a Palin/Bolton ticket in '12," comments Connecticut Yankee. Above the sweet tiny girl contemplates things we don't see.

Can't argue with that, C Ward! Finally, "I miss the blog posts and the pictures," comments retriever:

Glad you are all right, was about to miaow "Where are you,Sissy?"

We're still here, retriever, and will do our best to get back into that blogging kitchen and start cooking up a groaning board of words and pictures to nourish the hearts and minds of our treasured readers and commenters.

Update: "Thnks 4 thrwing us a bne," quips our imail correspondent:

We: U NO U luv twitter.

She: LOL. I dn't bt wld B gud at it. I was always good with foreign languages. I'm really happy for you … for the kick you are getting out of it, but … am also thrilled that your greatest fans are as annoyed as I am. Abandoned lovers, all.

If blogging be the food of love, blog on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so twitter?

Update II: Modulator's Friday Ark #263 now boarding.

The soul of wit

Where have all the blogposts gone? First time we've gone over a week without blogging since launching our little flagship into the blogosphere 5 3/4 years ago on December 12, 2003, with "The tidings that dare not speak their name." We've never veered far off the pro-freedom-of-speech course set for that first outing, but why now the silence? Has the cat got our tongue? Tiny, above and blow atop the dining room table the other day in the countdown to supper, isn't talking.

We've been twittering up a storm of late (check out the column at right just below "Pope Teddy Mug" for a running stream of our latest tweets). As suggested in one of the questions in Technorati's "State of the Blogosphere Survey," which we took this morning, twittering itself — often referred to as microblogging — may be a culprit. Both our own and others' tweets can be a catalyst for expansion of whatever's festering in the febrile blogging brain, but just as easily, Twitter's requirement that the writer condense expression of her ideas into 140 or fewer characters can be a refiner's fire that leaves ideas clarified with no need of further exposition. One example from a series of tweets plucking out highlights of Sarah Palin's historic keynote yesterday before a room full of world-class investors at a conference sponsored by investment firm CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, her first public-speaking engagement outside North America:

"There is no justice in taking from one person and giving to another," she said. "History shows it simply does not work."

I loved Sarah Palin from the first day: "We're not interested in government fixes, we're interested in freedom."

"We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place," says Sarah Palin in Hong Kong speech.

A gratifying contrast to President Obama's usual "now-is-the-time" —  first time? — speech before the UN this morning, also billed as historic. We agreed with twitterer Zener39's assessment:

Bolton: Obama's speech "unpresidential."

As we said in a retweet, "The man with the mustache that repels bullets has Obama's number."

Update: More delicious and nutritious Bolton fare: “a post-American speech by our first post-American president. It was a speech high on the personality of Barack Obama and high on multilateralism, but very short in advocating American interests … It was a very naïve, Wilsonian speech, and very revealing of Obama’s foreign policy,” said Bolton.

Update II: "Good one, doll, but you leave us non-twitterers lonely," writes our imail correspondent:

We: I will try to get back into things. So many worries the last period of time. A breather today. Just got word from vet that Tiny's bloodwork is normal. With her being on steroids, one has to keep watch. I've gotten the dose down as low as possible. [Goomp's pussycat] Purrky is fine. Cold almost gone. Freezer now working again with new timer.The little things add up.

She: Yes, constant low-level anxiety is a real energy-drainer.

Sigh.

Update III: "I am out of touch since the advent of the tweet," imails Goomp poignantly. "I'm hoping to get things back on an even keel," we imail back.

Update IV: Unholy alliances: The Anchoress is in the same boat. "She cannot come out to play until she has finished her work":

Apparently, she spent an unholy amount of time last night, playing on something called Twitter, which sounds insipid, flightly, unhealthy, sinful and vulgar. She did this, furthermore, after being expressly forbidden to enjoy herself until her assignments were completed. Because she is a slothful, inattentive, disobedient and lazy flittertigibbet of a girl, she will not be permitted to play here with you on this devil’s machine until she has done her work, or I will beat her until you hear her high c’s from Shanghai to the Aran Islands!

And you get to work, too, young masters and mistresses, or I will find you! Don’t make me use this ruler!

Lord help us.

Update: All things bright and beautiful now boarding Modulator's Friday Ark #262.

The warring tribes of post-9/11

Republication of our September 11, 2006 post "A virtual lamp beside the golden door, revisited": "It’s been nearly three years since 9/11," wrote Michele of A Small Victory two years back, inviting her readers to add their own two cents' worth to her Voices 2004. "Where do you stand right now as far as emotional recovery goes? Have you moved on? Healed? How does your emotional view of 9/11 differ now from three years ago? Do you find yourself more hopeful than you were then?" We're republishing our response, which seems to have stood the test of time, in that we still agree with ourselves.

How would Osama answer the question "Do you find yourself more hopeful than you were then?" We think he would be of two minds: 1) Yes and 2) No.

1) Yes. Surely the evil genius whose own demons made him wake the sleeping giant* must be gratified to see the Orwellian inversion that has taken place in some large portion of the popular imagination, where the lunatic ravings of homegrown academics blinded by their hatred of America — the Susan Sontags and Noam Chomskys of this world — have metastacized into a toxic worldwide anti-American hysteria that threatens to derail the War on Islamic Extremism (Condi Rice's term for the War on Terror). We could write volumes about that. We have, in fact, written blog volumes about that. Listen to Sontag's solipsistic, a-historical, hyperventilating pontifications from her New Yorker essay published in the aftermath of 9/11:

The disconnect between last Tuesday's monstrous dose of reality and the self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The voices licensed to follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize the public. [Note to Ms. Sontag: Our response was our own. It was visceral. We didn't wait for some public figure to tell us what to think or how to feel.] Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a "cowardly" attack on "civilization" or "liberty" or "humanity" or "the free world" but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions? [Note to Ms. Sontag: You haven't a clue re the terrorists' motives. See Bernard Lewis, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer et al.]

Our leaders are bent on convincing us that everything is O.K. America is not afraid. Our spirit is unbroken, although this was a day that will live in infamy and America is now at war. But everything is not O.K. And this was not Pearl Harbor. We have a robotic President who assures us that America still stands tall.

2) No. Despite the appeal of Sontag & Company's "arguments" to all who would blame America first, Osama must be worried about our country's pesky refusal to cut and run.  9/11 was, in fact, like Pearl Harbor in that the enemy realized he had awakened a sleeping giant.* In fact, the enemy has awakened two sleeping giants. America stands taller than ever on the world stage, staring down the nattering appeasement crowd on the one hand, and tearing down the terrorist networks and support systems on the other, thanks to the great leadership of President George W. Bush, his remarkable team of seasoned advisors, our superb military and the Coalition of the Willing.

But 9/11 awoke another sleeping giant, one that may have been slouching towards some kind of cyberBethlehem waiting to be born even as world attention was focused elsewhere. We're speaking, of course, of the blogosphere. A virtual lamp beside the golden door, this new medium was a beacon to the virtual "huddled masses yearning to breathe free" in the wake of 9/11, giving voice to those who had been voiceless — Iraqi bloggers, milbloggers, homefront bloggers and bloggers of every stripe, seekers of wisdom and truth who weren't buying what effete academic elites and mainstream media pack journalists were selling anymore

Update: Antivenin links.

*Note. "In the movies Tora! Tora! Tora! and Pearl Harbor, [Japanese naval commander] Yamamoto's character says, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, 'I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.' Considerable doubt exists, though, whether he actually ever said (or wrote) anything like that; it was probably invented for the movies, although it may well have encapsulated some of his real feelings about it," according to Nationmaster Encyclopedia. Update post 2004 election: False but accurate?

"And run down the streets all redneckèd"

Erato, Muse of lyric poetry, by British artist Edward John Poynter, watercolor 1870.

We were a-Muse-d to have inspired our favorite lyric poet, Elisson — who knows what women like — to wax poetic in the comments over "I am tea party woman, hear me roar!:

It's no fun when men are henpeckèd
Or when their nice cars all get wreckèd
Let them take off their clothes
Protest liberal woes
And run down the streets all redneckèd.

I am tea party woman, hear me purr!

Peggy Noonan is following us

Terry Teachout and Sissy Willis are now following Peggy Noonan on Twitter and vise versa (see below for more). Our Twitter logo above is detail of "a many-colored cotton Ralph Lauren outsourced to India, air-drying in the shade of the Silver Maple, a bumped-up version of the madras plaids that were all the rage in our salad days."

"Two kinds of people," Twitters A-list critic, biographer and blogger Terry Teachout, who blogs at About Last Night:

I'm the kind who straightens up his hotel room before going out to dinner.

That's two things we have in common with the estimable Mr. Teachout — drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and music critic of Commentary — the other being that Teachout and ourselves were the first two, among 194 Twitterers notified this morning that Peggy Noonan "is now following [our] updates on Twitter," to respond by clicking on "follow" at her Twitter site:

We tried explaining to Tuck what it all means but had to admit that we ourselves still don't quite get this Twittering thing. As Karl Rove  — who follows us and 41,197 others on Twitter — was reported to have Twittered when he first signed on last January:

In one Tweet he confesses that he is "no new media ninja" but is being shown the ropes by an assistant, adding: "I like it so far!"

That's about how we feel, minus the assistant. Back to why on earth Peggy Noonan is following us on Twitter, we're probably in her email address book from a brief correspondence we had four years back over our post "Peggy Noonan almost gets it," a critique of her column "The Blogs Must Be Crazy," wherein she proposed that Big Media "get our own bloggers to challenge our work":

Why don't we invite bloggers who already exist into the tent? Why not take the best things said on blogs each day and print them on a Daily Blog page? We'd be enhancing our rep as an honest news organization, and it will further our branding!

As we pointed out in a follow-up post at the time:

… the jury is still out about the integrity of a blogger's being paid by big media to tell it like it is. Probably not possible. Either you is or you isn't my baby.

Checking back with Noonan's Twitter page before going to press, we note that since we started writing late morning, she's up from the initial two —Terry T. & Sissy W. — to 26 followers, and counting. We've got 59 followers after being on Twitter a coupla months. Any takers?

"The best cat pictures on Facebook"

Tiny reflects upon her name in the early morning light.

"I wanted you as a friend because I know you will have the best cat pictures on Facebook," Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House — who is also associate editor at The American Thinker and Chicago editor for Pajamas Media — wrote on our Facebook "Wall" this afternoon. Facebook, you ask? Wikipedia defines it as a "free-access social networking website" with "more than 150 million active users worldwide." Founded in October of 2003 by a Harvard student "blogging about a girl and trying to think of something to do to get her off his mind," it "has been blocked intermittently in several countries including Syria and Iran, so it can't be all bad. As Rick wrote on his own Facebook Wall earlier today, "Rick is struck dumb by how many people he knows on Facebook. Is he the only human who didn't know about this?" We kind of stumbled into it ourselves a few months back when our totally awesome non-blogging heartland niece Mabs "SuperPoked" us.

Turn the image 90˚and you've got a Rorschach Test to read your own preoccupations into. Tiny's inner cat brooding over the issues of the day?  The shadow of the smile of her late brother tormenting her soul?

Our blogging juices jogged by Rick's request for Facebook friendship, we Googled "sisu Rick Moran" and were delighted to find a couple of 2007 posts incorporating the ailurophilic words of Mr. Moran in our headlines [Cute cat pictures alert!]:

1. "More cat pictures, please," a quotation from an email Rick had sent us.

2. "The uses of 'a well modulated meow,'" a reference to Rick's post "THE INEFFABLE “EFFABLE EFFANINEFFABLES.”

"I wonder when they developed the ability to tug at our heartstrings with a well modulated 'meow?'" Rick asked rhetorically in that last-referenced post:

At what point did they realize that the simple act of looking us right in the eye, showing a face that defines animal beauty and comeliness, would make us fall in love with them? Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out when cats discovered they could get more by giving less; that the ability to manipulate us, wrap us around their paw meant that they could dole out their affections by the teaspoon rather than the bushelfull as lesser creatures like dogs do?

A friend, indeed.

Update: Lots more heartstring tugging at Modulator's Friday Ark #230.

Navel gazing R us

The importance of being noticed. An ur theme of this blog that explains so much of human behavior that might otherwise baffle us. We've always loved the eclecticism and artistry of Ann Althouse's blog, a sweet and savory mixture of political, cultural and legal commentary with occasional fleeting glimpses of what may be "the me nobody knows," interspersed with striking visual compositions we call "Althouse Moments." Above, a Photoshopped Althouse Moment of the Professor herself from her blog profile page.

"On the other hand, it does encourage her readers to click over to this blog," writes the estimable Ann Althouse in her latest post, headlined with a quotation from our previous offering, "Ann has her reasons, discernible in a parsing of her own comments following her post." Her take:

I'm not sure if I like that or not. On the one hand, Sissy Willis not bothering with my reasons, as she rolls along, lavishing praise on the project she has already bound herself to. ("Roger L. Simon is a genius.") On the other hand, it does encourage her readers to click over to this blog:

Screenshots of Althouse and sisu Site Meter Stats mid morning. Thanks to our concurrent Instalanches, Althouse had gotten 124 hits from us at that point, while we had gotten 75 from her. Thanks all around.

You link my blog, I'll link yours. Althouse enjoys a Sisulanche and sisu enjoys an Althouselanch (above), even as both experience the aftershocks of separate Instalanches of our own. As we blogged in "Some bloggers will do anything to be noticed" back in May of 2005:

We get our blog hits where we can. As George M. Cohan said, "I don't care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right."

In fact, forget about the spelling. Just come visit, early and often!

Roger L. Simon is a genius

We caught Tiny in a Rembrandt Moment this afternoon as she stared atop Tuck's computer at things we don't see in the countdown to supper. Update from Tuck in the comments: "Here is a masterpiece. This portrait speaks to the wonder of our beloved companions; here is a thinking, compassionate, responsive, introspective being."

Alpha blogger Ann Althouse may protest — too much? — but we have never felt prouder of our association with Pajamas Media than we are at the thought of Roger L. Simon & Company's inspired decision to hire Joe the Plumber as Israel war correspondent for PJTV. Once there, JTP's hooking up with our sub rosa blogfriend Richard Landes and Danny Seaman, Israel’s GPO (Government Press Office) director, reports Roger. Being a bit behind in our blog reading, we happened to first hear about it all last night from the lips of Bret Baier, cutie-pie new host of Fox News's "Special Report with Brit Hume,"** and delving further today were delighted to see that everyone's talking about it, from the straight-reporting Times of India to a predictably snickering NYT. The usual suspects are horrified, as Roger explains:

This has created quite a brouhaha in the media — cable television, newspapers, wire services, etc.  Everyone from CNN to gawker.com has something to say about Joe heading for the Middle East …

To be honest, some (maybe much) of this reportage is pretty snotty. Nora O’Donnell of MSNBC — herself an MA in international relations, lahdeedah — fairly frothed at the mouth at the prospect of the unqualified Joe having the temerity to report news in a foreign land. Those hipoisie over at Gawker weren’t too charitable either.

Evidently, a lot of people are annoyed that Joe’s fifteen Warhol minutes aren’t quite over yet. Or perhaps they’re threatened that a common man can be a reporter simply by asking common sense questions — no Columbia J-school degree required.

Self Portrait as a Young Man by Rembrandt van Rijn. 1634, Oil on canvas. Uffizi, Florence, "It shows the artist with a strong-willed expression, in an extremely natural, uneffected three-quarter pose; the figure is illuminated by a light coming from the left whose spreading glow enlarges the space which serves as a background." Compare Tiny's natural, uneffected three-quarter pose with light coming from the right, above.

We totally agree with Althouse commenter ricpic, who asks rhetorically why Ann is not amused:

Why? Because he isn't credentialed? Intelligence and good sense — which Joe has in abundance — are fungible. He'll make an excellent war correspondent.

Ann has her reasons, discernible in a parsing of her own comments following her post, but we haven't been so energized since the moment last summer when Sarah Palin sprung full blown into our consciousness in a Larry Kudlow interview we stumbled upon at YouTube when rumors were rumbling that the Alaska Governor would be McCain's VP pick. And now Garbo Palin talks in a totally awesome exclusive interview with John Ziegler of howobamagotelected.com, featured today at Andrew Breitbart's spanking new run-against-the-cultural-herd Big Hollywood. Ziegler leaves Gibson and Couric and their fellow-traveling Northeast Corridor conservatives in the dust.

Now back to the cultural left's apoplexy at the idea of Joe the Plumber in Israel, from an imail conversation this evening:

We: You are known by your enemies. They feel threatened.

She: I am heartsick for Israel. I hope they stick to their rockets, and continue to STAND AND FIGHT!

We: They MUST.

She: The lying spinning that has become the mantra … "Israel is inhumane." The world has, indeed been co-opted by insane ideologies.

We: It is SO medieval. It is more important for leftists to be in solidarity with their "tribe" than to seek truth.

Speaking of truth seekers, here's Roger L. Simon with the next-to-the-last word:

I must say I find amusing the idea of Joe lined up with all the telephoto cameras at that Gaza media overlook with Cooper, Amanpour, et al. It’s certainly the stuff of Frank Capra.

And now the last word, from a post of ours back in March of 2005:

The importance of being noticed makes the world go 'round, from al-Queda types who intimidate through cold-blooded murder of innocents to impress their "brothers," to internet hackers who wreak havoc amongst online innocents to impress their own fellow travelers. On the good side, each one of us seeks, through our accomplishments, to earn a place of honor among our peers. The real issue is, whom do we select as our peers.

We're throwing in our lot with the brothers and sisters of Pajamas Media and Big Hollywood.

Update: Roger tickles our funny bone in the comments:

Thanks, Sissy. I have sent this post to my mother.

That's her Barney!*

Update II:  Ziegler's Palin interview at Breitbart's Big Hollywood gets the red-link treatment at Drudge (screenshot above). You go, boys!

Update III: Unlike Althouse, Instapundit is amused:

WELL, DUH. Still, there’s a value to stating the obvious.

Thanks for the link, Professor.

Update IV: Michelle Malkin asks — and answers —"Who’s afraid of Joe the Journalist?"

Update VI: Lots more amusements at Modulator's Friday Ark #225.

*"That's my Barney" is one of our sis's favorite quotations from her favorite musical, "The Music Man," the words every proud mother calls out when she sees the flesh of her flesh doing her proud.

** Thanks to readers kimsch of Musing Minds and megrez 80 in the comments for FoxNews corrections.